Florals and Ruffles | Two of my current faves

Gahhhh….I know I should be posting fall pieces, but dammit….it’s still sweltering hot here in Charleston, so sweaters and coats are the very last thing on my mind.  Plus I haven’t even had a chance to wear all the new summer pieces I got this season (partly bc 78% of the time I’m either in workout clothes or pajamas, but that’s neither here nor there).  So if you also live in the south and have a solid two months of summer left, then stick with me girl;)  If not, then you can always prepare for next year:)

These adorable floral ruffle trimmed shorts made the trip to Mexico with me, and they were perfect for dinner our first night out on the beach.  And thank goodness that beach party fell on night one, bc by day two my legs swelled up like stuffed sausages and it was basically pants and maxi dresses for the rest of the trip.  You have to be careful with the undies you wear with them, as the fabric can be a bit see through (like don’t wear a black thong and you should be good;)).

I know I am always sharing stuff from Shein, but their stuff is just too cute to pass up, and the prices can’t be beat.  I love that it’s easy to stay on trend without breaking the bank.

So on a non-fashion related note, things have been CRAZY since we got back from Mexico.  Backing up for a sec…..for the past couple months I’ve been sort of in a funk about our house situation.  It mainly revolves around our dogs’ needs, and what they need is a yard with a privacy fence, which our HOA doesn’t allow.  I am super paranoid about our dogs becoming a nuisance, so I never leave them unattended when they’re outside, that way if they start barking, I’m right there to correct them.  I’m also afraid of them getting stolen, bit by a snake, stung by a bee, overheating….etc etc, so yeah….I’m a helicopter fur-mom.  Anyway, within a month, both of our next door neighbors got puppies, which is great….who doesn’t love puppies??  The bad news is our dogs freak the eff out every time we go outside now when said puppies are on the other side of our fence, which is a lot.  So essentially I feel like we can never go outside and enjoy ourselves anymore.  Our dogs are typical lazy bulldogs, so they don’t do much of anything when I let them out, and they won’t make a peep unless they see one of these dogs.  The one next door neighbor also has a cat that basically lives in our bushes (which makes me sad because I always hear it crying to be let into their house) and he always taunts our dogs too.  So I’m kinda feeling like a privacy fence would solve the problem, but that requires moving.  I do love our house and our marsh view, which is sort of tough to come by at a decent price nowadays (at least in Charleston), but our house just needs to be somewhere else, and that’s obviously not possible.  It bums me out to think about leaving, since it’s our first home and we’ve poured so much blood, sweat and tears into making it our own (and there’s still plenty to be done), but I’m just not happy here anymore.  Not to mention one of the reasons why we chose our particular neighborhood is because of the nearby schools, but since we never started a family, we don’t need to be in this part of town.

Yada yada yada, I started looking at listings when we got back from Mexico just to take a little peek and see what’s on the market.  I started sending some listings to Michael, and he was not at all receptive to the idea of moving.  Shockingly, I finally convinced him to come to an open house with me this past Sunday, but he still wasn’t quite on board.

Then late Monday night the most random thing happened as I was laying in bed literally researching the best way to list a house FSBO….an old girlfriend of mine FB messaged me saying that she knew it was a “major long shot,” but wondered if we’d be open to showing our house bc she has some buyers who are looking for a very specific home, and after exhaustive searches and tons of showings, ours is the only one that she could think of that fit the bill.  I mean, hellooooooo fate, it’s nice to meet you!!

It took some convincing, but Michael finally agreed that we could show it, and if the offer is good enough, he said he’d be open to moving.  The problem was the buyer needed to see it on Thursday (today!).  So I then got to work cleaning, and holy cow did I have my work cut out for me.  We hadn’t even unpacked from Mexico yet.  And guess what?  Those suitcases got zipped right back up and are sitting in the closet as I type.  I really thought we had a clean house, but it definitely wasn’t ‘show ready’ and it seemed like my to-do list only got longer with every little cleaning project I tackled.  I soon realized this process was going to be a long one, and required my undivided attention.

So I spent all day Tuesday cleaning….took a 30 minute run, ate dinner, and then stayed up until 4:30am scrubbing away, and folding the mountain of laundry we’ve shamefully been hiding in one of the spare bedrooms.  Woke up at 8:30am Wednesday and resumed the painful process of cleaning nose smudges and dog boogers off the lower two feet of our entire home (gross), until around 2:30pm when I had to start getting ready for my event at Merchant’s Hall.  Went to said event…..had a great time (YAY!!).  Got home around 9:30pm, and then went right back to cleaning.  Took a two hour nap, and then cleaned all the way until right before “show-time” at 12:45 today (Thursday).  By the time I left the house with the dogs (which is always a giant shit show bc they go bananas whenever you get a leash near them), I was nauseous (from being so exhausted), hungry, thirsty, constipated, and delirious, but dammit I got it done (at least to an acceptable level;)).  Thankfully the buyer was made aware that this was thrown on me sort of last minute, and thankfully, she actually liked the house (so my efforts weren’t a total waste of time), and she wants to bring her hubby back tomorrow:)  I will still have to de-fur again tomorrow morning, but at least I can actually get a decent night of sleep tonight, as tomorrow’s cleaning should go relatively quickly.  Though, I just noticed it’s already after midnight…whoops!  Oh well…..I’ll sleep when I’m dead.